Drowning
by FleurHartz
Summary: Hey, my darling sister wrote this one- In Season One, Jack and Nina have a moment that only leaves them both more confused than before. RR


Hey everyone! This fic was not written by me, it was written by my brilliant sister, Katos. She doesn't have a working account, and so I said I'd post it for her. I'll pass on all your reviews, and for anyone interested, "Counting the Cost- Ch. 5" will be out soon!  
  
AN: This is my first ever 24 fic. It's an additional scene set in day one, some where around the middle of the day after Kim and Teri are saved the first time. I just think this would have been really interesting.  
  
Disclaimer: All the 24 stuff is not mine. It would be awesome if it were though because that would be fun and also it would make me very rich.  
  
Drowning  
  
As Jack surveyed the CTU floor, with its agents bent over their computers diligently working, he felt a surge of emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. He knew he had to get out. He couldn't lose control, not here especially after all that had already happened today. He quickly made his way down one of the side hallways and ducked into a conference room he knew didn't have cameras.   
  
  
  
He tightly gripped the edge of the table and closed his eyes as the exhaustion finally won and the torrent of emotions he had been repressing all day came crashing down on him. He felt frustrated and useless, two things he was unaccustomed to feeling. He hadn't been able to protect his wife or daughter and they had had to go through hell as a result and now that they were safe and desperately needed his strength and support he wasn't able to go to them. He couldn't help but think that they would have been better off if he had never gone back to them. Now they were trapped in dangerous world that they didn't understand and had no place in. Being involved with him had almost gotten them killed and Jack couldn't help but think that this wouldn't be the last time. He had almost lost everything and for what?  
  
  
  
Jack was pulled from his thoughts by the feel of a hand resting on his back. His emotions were stretched so thin that instinct took over. He twisted around grabbed the hand and forced its owner against the wall.  
  
  
  
"Jack, what the hell?" Nina sputtered her voice raw with surprise and indignation.  
  
  
  
"Nina." Jack said letting go of her but not stepping away "I thought you were…I don't know what I thought." He wearily rubbed the bridge of his nose.  
  
  
  
"First you shoot a girl and then you slam her into a wall, not exactly my idea of an apology." Nina said with a wry smile.  
  
  
  
"I'm sorry." Jack said his words still colored with the intensity he had felt just a moment ago. "Did you need something?" he asked trying to sound as if nothing were wrong.  
  
  
  
"No, I just wanted to see if you were alright. I saw you take off and I figured you'd come here." There was a brief awkward silence as they both remembered the significance of this room having no security cameras. Finally Jack broke the silence.  
  
  
  
"They could've been killed….all because of me." His words were little more than a whisper.   
  
  
  
"But they weren't. You got there in time and they're fine. They're safe now." Nina placed a hand on his shoulder her eyes pleading with him to let it go.  
  
  
  
"Yeah, this time, but for how long?" these words brought the guilt he had felt earlier flooding back and he felt as though he were drowning in it. Going under alone, again and he didn't think he could bear it.  
  
  
  
He looked up at her, begging for some kind of answer. She looked back at him, her green eyes full of answers to his questions, her hand on his shoulder, holding him up like she always did. Nina had been his constant- throughout CTU, throughout everything…and the first time she had become more than that in his eyes was so fresh on his mind and his memory that it seemed to flood through his conscious unbidden. His tired mind couldn't differentiate between what was right and what was wrong, it only brought his instincts to the surface with an urgent intensity.   
  
  
  
"Jack, you can't blame yourse-" and that was all she able to say. Jack closed the small distance between them, and his lips were suddenly and rather insistently on hers. Nina recoiled slightly in surprise before melting into the kiss. She responded hungrily to his touch, working one of her hands into his hair and pulling him to her with other. Their kiss deepened, hands retracing their old familiar paths. Jack began kissing her neck gently at first and then with more intensity as his fingers started on the buttons of her shirt. She found the buttons of his shirt and undid them with efficiency born of practice. She kissed his neck biting occasionally with the fervor of too-long repressed passion.   
  
  
  
"God, I've missed you." She half-groaned, half-whispered into his ear.  
  
  
  
"I've missed you too." Jack mumbled as his lips gently caressed one of the bruises left by the bullets of earlier that day. Something about these wounds seemed to snap Jack back to reality. The weight of his life seemed to drop once again squarely on his shoulders. He thought of Kim and of Teri, and of all the people yet to be saved today and just as suddenly as he had started he pulled away.  
  
  
  
"What is it?" Nina asked, looking baffled.  
  
  
  
"Nina, we can't do this." Jack said, looking away as he took a step back from her.  
  
  
  
"Great time for a crisis of conscience." Nina said, her voice bitingly sarcastic as she began to re-button her shirt.  
  
  
  
"I'm sorry, this was just…"  
  
  
  
"A stupid mistake. I agree." Her voice was cold and almost expressionless. She pulled his shirt back on his shoulders. "Go check on your wife." Her voice still dripped with an eerie coldness, such a switch from the passion that had been there mere seconds ago. "Oh, and you may want to button your top collar button." She fingered the obvious bite mark on his collarbone. "I doubt Teri would appreciate this." She said Teri's name as if it was the worst possible insult she could think of.  
  
  
  
"Nina…" Jack said, his voice softer and more sympathetic than normal.  
  
  
  
"Don't do that Jack. Don't talk to me like I'm your bitch." Nina's voice was steeped in venom, anger coloring the edges of her words.   
  
"After all, this is your pattern, right? You get what you want and then its back home to the Mrs. Let's not break with tradition or anything." Her eyes flashed dangerously as she spoke.  
  
Jack didn't say anything.  
  
  
  
"Well, obviously, you're fine. I've got work to do. I'm sure Teri and Kim are having yet another crisis." She said, her voice cool and calm as though nothing had happened. She ran a hand through her hair to straighten it and abruptly left the room.  
  
A/N- Please leave a review! 


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